Effect of musical training on lexical tone perception in Chinese dyslexic children

Abstract

This study examined the effect of musical training on Cantonese lexical tone perception in Chinese dyslexics and normally developing readers. Experiment 1 compared perception of musical beats and lexical tone between normally developing children with music training and ones without music training to investigate the effect of musical training on lexical tone perception in normal children. Children with musical training performed significantly better than those without musical training in lexical tone identification and musical beats perception. Experiment 2 tested perception of lexical tone and music beats in dyslexic children with musical training, dyslexic children without musical training and normal controls without any musical training. The result showed that there was significant difference between dyslexic children without musical training and normal controls in lexical tone perception, but there was no significant difference between dyslexic children with musical training and normal controls, indicating that musical training was effective in improving lexical tone perception ability of dyslexic children. These imply that musical training could be an effective way to help dyslexic children read better.